Last week, in Number sense 027, we outlined the rules of the algebra game.
It was some pretty rough sledding, and there weren't any goats around to liven things up. This week, I'm going to see how we can use these algebra properties and to solve some problems
We can model equations with a scale.
We can put stuff on one side
and it won't balance, unless we put an equal amount of stuff on the other side.
In this case, we can tell that the goat is equal to 27.
Lets suppose that we had a more complicated equation we wanted to solve.
Two goats and six balance one goat and ten. 2x + 6 = x + 10
One of our rules says we can take the same thing away from both sides and still balance.
Another rule says we can replace an amount with the same amount
I did that to set up the next step, which is to subtract the same from both sides again.
Now we are left with a goat on one side, by itself, and four on the other side. We can see (underneath the scale) that we have removed a goat and six from both sides, so the scale remains balanced.
The goat is equal to four. If 2x + 6 = x + 10 then x = 4
Have fun in the comments.